Mr H. D. Pike.

Observer, Volume XVIII, Issue 1024, 13 August 1898, Page 6

Mr H. D. Pike.

The sale by Mr H. D. Pike of his home at Mount Roskill is an indication that his recent removal to Gisborne is a permanent one. This will be regretted by Mr Pike's riends, whose name iB legion, for he is and has been very popular in Auckland Mr Pike was one of the leading spirits of the Druids' cause in Auckland, and at the time of his departure held an important office in that order. In business, he filled a responsible position in the establishment of Messrs Court Brothers, drapers, and resigned this in order to accept a more lucrative position in the same line at Gis borne.

John Chinaman," whatever his faults, must be pretty hard driven before he seeks lodgings at the public expense. One of them ie said to have had to do it at Danedin, and shown some of th& proverbial cnteness of his race in the business. First he told the police people that he was mad, and when they sent for a doctor to prove that he wasn't, he amused himself by tearing up the blanket in his cell as evidence that he was. That trick didn't wash, but John attained his purpose by getting sent up for a fortnight for destroying Government property.

One of the late Captain Fairchild's hobbies was the sending of a colonial expedition to the antarctic legions. Speaking to an Obsekvek man when the Tutanekai was last at Anckland, he drawled: ' Wall, my idea is that New Zealand and Australia should combine and send four steamers. This for fafety. When the autarctics are reached one steamer goes ahead like the feeler of an octopus, and the others fellow. This process to be repeated, and slowly but smely — and with little danger to the exhibition — valuable discoveries would be made.' What think our marine department of the old captain's suggestion ?

According to an English paper, Oscar Wilde is meditating a trip to Australia. He will endeavour to travel incognito.

It was Mr Neville Forder who wrote the crushing article in Sydney Truth which closed the Hagey Institute in that city. He it was, also, who constructed the chain of evidence that defeated the libel action in the Supreme Court. By-the-way, notwithstanding the disclosures that have been made, the proprietors of the Hagey Institute in Auckland still have the audacity to advertise ' a safe and permanent cnre for alcoholism and narcotism.' Moreover, they advertise also a pamphlet containing endorsements of cures. And this with bo many positive failures in evidence on every hand.

Considerable amusement was caosed in the Palmerston Police Court the other day by reading oat the names of many prominent residents who had sported their money, and who had evidently been fortunate in getting good dividends. It was astonishing how many of the nnco quid hitherto unsuspected of such a weakness had been investing their occasional pound and backing their fancy.

Captain Macbeth, late of the Upolu and now on one of the UJ3.S. Oo.'s Island steamers, has been complimented' by a lady writer, who in a London daily describes her trip to the islands . 'The captain was the nicest little Scotchman that 1 have travelled with.' Sly dog, eh ?

Tommy Taylor says some politicians would have you believe that a man can sleep in a pint pot. They don't plead for bedrooms, but for bars, which are the financial basis of the whole business . True enough. There isn't much profit in letting rooms, with clean sheets on the bed, to Prohibitionists at a shilling a night. And some of them would doss out rather than pay more.

If the enterprising drummer from the South ia not careful there will be trouble with the firm about his fair travelling companion. It was a risky game to boob aB Mr and Mrs So-and-ao, and the danger was increased when the opposition traveller came along. Bluff occasionally fails, even at Te Aroha !

Ia iS a fact that one of the ' aristocrats ' who made the island trip on the Waikare went on a bender shortly after the boat left Wellington, and stave an interesting exhibition of snakes and other lively things. His friends managed to satisfactorily explain his frequent absences from table, but the female ' relative ' with whom he was travelling will long remember the island excursion of 1898. By-the-way, the gentleman in question is cousin to a colonial ' blood ' who painted Wellington ruby coloured some two years back.

Mrs Sharman ia the subject of a good many paragraphs in the Australian news papers. Thus Melbourne Table Talk: 1 Juliet Wray, who has settled down to be Mrs Dr. Sharman, in Auckland, has set the whole of the community on fire by her lavish dressing and her vocal gifts.' Also, Adelaide Quiz: 'The prediction, among her old companions, iB that Miss Juliet Wray (Mra Dr Sharman, of Auckland) will eventually return to the Btage. There doesn't appear to be any sort of justification for the suggestion, excepting the lady's oft-expresßedlove for the theatrical profession in the old days.

Dr Cahill, in the Wellington Supreme Court, to Lawyer Jellicoe, in crosß-examin-ation — • I really know very little about this particular case you are asking about.' Jellicoe— That's why you are brought herß, I suppose.' Dr Cahill — ' Your impudence doesn't go for much.' Lawyer Skerrett — ' I concur, and I have nothing to add.'

Some of Madame Heller's peeps into the future. 'Auckland will defeat Taranaki at football.' • New Zealand will have a prosperous time in the next few years ' ' The Seddon Ministry will not be thrown over this session, but will be defeated at the elections next year. ' Canterbury will be more successful at football against her opponents next year.' ' A horse whose name looks like Sequin will win the New Zealand Cup if a certain difficulty is overcome.' Theße prognostications are without the nsual editorial guarantee.

Mr George Bowen, ' Nunquam Dormio,' the oldest sporting journalist in Australia, is bußy getting up a company to publish, in Melbourne, a new live weekly penny paper to be called Bell's Life.

Eev. F. W- Isitt was decidedly roueh on the Auckland daily papers in his address 'At the Bar of Public Opinion.' The Star and Herald were very roughly handled, and, by inuendo, were accused of sacrificing prestige for pence. But the laitta would further the cauß3 considerably if they were more moderate in their;tanguage And, by the way, would Mr Isitt repeat those interesting lines on Earnshaw — at that time member for Dunedin — when on a Southern tour Borne years back. It iB said they were unique in their way.

Dr Wilkins voiced a popular sentiment when he endorsed the opinion of Mr E. "W. Payton and urged that the Queen's statue should be erected on the band site in the Albert Park. The situation allotted for it is not a good one, and the suggested change might be made with advantage.

Her name was Aggie. No one knew hia. The scoundrel managed, as these scoundrels usually do, to keep his identity Becret. The poor girl was loyal enough to do that for him. And this was the pathetic note which Aggie left with her tiny child on the atepa of a Salvation Army Home in Melbourne, and which told the pitiful tale of the writer only too well :— ' Dear Friend, — Whoever may get my dear little baby, be kind to her and bring her up a Roman Catholic. I am heartbroken to part with her in this manner, but what' is a mother to do 1 The father has left us in this lonely world to do the beßt we can, and I am to weak to keep her any longer. All I have had this week is a little bread and a cup of tea ; and to feed a baby on that I cannot. So, God forgive me for doing this, and may God bless the kind mother that may get her.'

Mr Oarlyle Smythe,,- son of the ' much travelled,' is reported to have settled for the present in Brussels, where he ia editing an English paper.

' Swaggers right— feed and bed for the night '—is a saying which finds practical recognition from settlers in the back country. But it can be overdone, as the recent experience of Mr Ellis, a well-known Awakino runholder, will show. On the borders of his run is a river that crosses the main road just completed by the Government — the Te Kuiti-Awakino road, in fact. Occasionally, in wet. weather, the river rises considerably, and, being unbridged, becomes impassable for days together. This was the state of things quite recently, with the result that thirty swaggers gradually congregated at Ellis's, and were ' put up ' for three days. Then horses were provided and all crossed safely. The runholder was congratulating himself that night that all was clear, when there came a new arrival. He was "stark naked, having accidentally, aB he said, lost his clothing in crossing the river, .also, he was badly cut and bruised with barbed wire and stones.

They took him in, and tended and nursed him, and after several days he was able to leave his bed, and was attired in clothing kindly given to him. But he showed no disposition to move on. The place was too comfortable for that. Finally, during the absence of the men, he became cheeky to the femalea at the homestead, and Mrs Ellis gave him a timely hint to make himself Bcarce before the boss returned. He went, taking with him the swag he did not bririg, . and a heavy swag at that. It included the mail bag, which was a fine leather case, and sundry other articles. One of the station hands followed the fellow on horseback and recovered the property. This is one of many such instances. But there are other annoyances. Mobs of cattle coming over from New Plymouth to Waikato, being unable to cross, clear the country of pasturage for miles. Surely, in the interests of the settlers, that river ought to be bridged.